CNN Draws Rivals’ Ire Over TV Rights

TV news rivals lashed out Sunday at CNN for attempting to keep an exclusive hold on pictures from inside Afghanistan of the American-led military attacks.

Defying a CNN embargo announced Saturday, all the major news organizations aired pictures from the Qatar-based Al Jazeera TV network, which is a CNN affiliate and the only TV operation with permission from Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban to transmit live pictures from inside the country.

“The idea that anybody would put petty competitive concerns ahead of the public’s right to see the only video from the region struck me as amazing,” said CBS News President Andrew Heyward.

“There is a time and place for competitive frenzy and exclusivity, but an Arab network with unique access to the Taliban and Kabul is not that place,” he added, noting that a significant portion of American TV viewers don’t subscribe to cable.

“We feel there is a compelling national interest in seeing those images, and we feel we have a duty to our viewers that outweighs any crass commercial self-interest of another network,” said an ABC News spokesman.

CNN News Group Chairman Walter Isaacson tried to downplay the dispute, saying, “In the middle of the war, this is not something we feel is appropriate to worry about or try to make a big deal about. In a situation like this, the more important thing is to make sure people stay well informed than try to worry about people picking up our coverage or those of our affiliates . . . Maybe I’ll worry about it later.”

A CNN executive said the agreement with Al Jazeera involved sharing of each other’s material and that no money changed hands. The executive said CNN was merely trying to preserve its access to the pictures, knowing that other networks were negotiating similar exclusive deals.

But rival networks said they already had agreements with Al Jazeera to share footage and would never have tried to impose embargoes.

“We would not have done the deal they have done,” said a CBS News spokeswoman. ABC News’ spokesman said ABC has had a long-standing relationship with Al Jazeera and expected that relationship to continue, noting that “an exclusive arrangement isn’t pernicious in and of itself as long as you share the images immediately.”

The dispute started Saturday when CNN faxed a letter from Al Jazeera’s managing director informing other broadcasters that because of an exclusive arrangement reached between the two after the Sept. 11 attack on the World Trade Center, any pictures, including those of military action inside Afghanistan, would be embargoed for use by others for six hours. Despite the fact that the letter was signed by Al Jazeera, other U.S. TV network sources said their annoyance lay with CNN, which refused to back down in tense discussions with at least one rival on Sunday morning.

The letter said, “Any party that picks up material off Al Jazeera air and runs it before Al Jazeera lifts its embargo on it shall be held legally responsible and could face prosecution in a court of law.”

But almost as soon as the Sunday attacks started at about 9:30 a.m. PDT, Al Jazeera pictures, including an apparently prerecorded statement from Osama bin Laden, were appearing on CBS, NBC, ABC, Fox News Channel and MSNBC.

Despite the tough language of the letter, CNN executives said they had no intention of taking legal action against the networks that violated the embargo.

NBC News, whose MSNBC cable news channel vies with CNN, said in a statement: “When America was attacked on Sept. 11, the networks put competition aside and responsibly served the American public and shared footage. When America strikes back, CNN has chosen a different path, despite requests that they make that material available. Al Jazeera is the only broadcaster the Taliban is permitting to go live and we decided that the concept of fair use applies here.”

“Fair use” is an exception to copyright law that allows an entity to take material from another party without permission when there is a compelling newsworthiness.

Dianne Brandi, vice president of legal affairs for Fox News Channel, said that “under any fair use argument, [CNN’s] is an invalid agreement.”

She said Fox decided Sunday morning that “during this time of national crisis when the U.S. is entering war, we were entitled to take the only pictures you can get from that area.”